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<p class="header">Machine Vision Toolbox for MATLAB</p>

<h1>Introduction</h1>
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Welcome to the Machine Vision for MATLAB.

The toolbox is a companion to the Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB code developed 
by Peter Corke for his PhD research over the period 1990 to 1994.
This toolbox was split out of the robotics toolbox and first released in 1999 and was revised in 2005 to coincide
with the the article
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2005.1577021">IEEE Robotics & Automation magazine article (Volume 14, Issue 4, Dec. 2007 Page(s):16 - 17)</a>

The toolbox underwent constant evolution since 2005 and changed significantly as
part of the Robotics, Vision &amp; Control book project.  In particular much
greater use was made of classes and a number of quality open-source computer 
vision packages were incorporated.

<h3>Advantages of using the Machine Vision Toolbox</h3>

The Toolboxes have some important virtues.
Firstly, they have been around for a long time and used by many people for many different problems so the code is entitled to some
level of trust.
The Toolbox provides a ``gold standard" with which to compare new algorithms or even the same algorithms coded
in new languages or executing in new environments.

Secondly, they allow the user to work with real problems, not trivial examples.
For real robots, those with more than two links, or real images with 
millions of pixels the computation is beyond unaided human ability. 
Thirdly, they allow us to gain insight which is otherwise lost in the complexity.
We can rapidly and easily experiment,  play "what if" games, and depict the
results graphically using MATLAB's powerful display tools such as 2D and 3D graphs and images.
MATLAB that will be familiar to most engineering students and 

Fourthly, the Toolbox code makes many common algorithms tangible and accessible.
You can read the code, you can apply it to your own problems, and you can extend it or rewrite it.
At the very least it gives you a headstart.

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